BookMarks #91: Autobiography of a Yogi

Title: Autobiography of a Yogi 

Author: Paramhansa Yogananda 

Genre: Autobiography 

Published: 1946 

BookMarks 

Autobiography of a Yogi is the autobiography of Mukunda Lal Ghosh and how he became Paramhansa Yogananda. It describes his various spiritual encounters and experiences in various places in both India and abroad. And its not just his story, it is also the story of his influences, Lahiri Mahasya, Sri Yukteswar and Babaji. 

What I liked most about the book is that it is not preaching but just narrating experiences of the spiritual nature which the Yogi had in his lifetime. And yet there were times in the narration which also rose the sceptic in me to question the events if they had happened at all. Which I guess is the most important objective of the book. To introduce Kriya Yoga to the reader and make them understand on their own! 

“God is simple. Everything else is complex” – what a simple and powerful line. I guess this line sums up the book. 

In the book, we also encounter famous historical figures of the times – Gandhiji, CV Raman, Tagore. Even Sherlock Holmes makes an appearance! We also read a lot of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and how Science proves God. Scientists do a better job at proving God’s existence than most godmen! 

No wonder this has been one of the most influential books of India abroad. 

Previously on BookMarks: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary 

Goodbye 2021

2021! 

What a terrible year it was. Thought 2020 was bad, but it was nothing compared to the collective trauma of 2021. We thought we had ridden over the Covid wave, with cases on the decline and vaccines rolling out. And then we got hit hard by the variants. Suffering yourself, seeing your loved ones laid low, hearing news almost daily of classmates, colleagues and acquaintances passing away. Meanwhile social media was full of cries for help. Amidst the doom scrolling, wanting to help while simultaneously feeling totally helpless yourself. Times couldn’t have been grimmer. 

Yet how quickly life threw us back into our usual routines. The Work From Home experiment continued, and travel was limited. The entertainment means continued to be limited. Reading, a bit of blogging, some OTT content – in short, more and more screen time! Personally, watched one genre more than others – kids TV. My personal recommendation - Masha and the Bear, with Dora the Explorer taking the second place. 

That was 2021 - a year of survival. And now entering 2022 with another wave of the virus arriving and cases escalating. Praying that this one’s impact is minimal. 

Maroon 5’s Memories (from 2019) really summed up the over-riding emotions of 2021 

Let’s hope that we stop living in these “unprecedented” times soon and get back to the “old normal” in 2022. Wishing all readers, a Very Happy, Healthy and Safe 2022!

2021: The Year Gone By

As the Year 2021 AD draws to a close, here is looking back at events (and non-events) to remember the year gone by. Some will be remembered, others just forgotten. But then that is the fun of making these lists. And 

1. Covid continues

We thought 2020 was bad. With the arrival of vaccines, 2021 was going to be better. Well, vaccines arrived but so did the deadlier variants as well as deadlier side-effects. Whenever we thought we had ridden a wave, another bigger wave came along. Can never forget the collective trauma of April-May which we in India went through. Hopefully with increasing vaccine coverage and better understanding of the disease we might be able to get a semblance of normalcy. 

2. Ever Given

If ever there was a metaphor for humanity's fight against the virus, it was the image of a tiny excavator trying to move the stuck container ship. One ship (albeit a very large one) disrupted the whole global supply chain. 

3. 87.58m

The distance that javelin flew. And just like that India had an Olympic Gold in Athletics! The crowning glory of our most successful Games ever. Thank You Neeraj Chopra! 

4. US Capitol siege

The seat of most powerful nation seiged by people who looked like they were in a fancy-dress parade. Amongst other things they walked off with the House Speaker’s podium. Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe the scene 

5. The Ultimate Fight

Every action movie director imagines that single shot of perfection – a perfectly choreographed fight scene going all over the place with protagonists moving in and out of the shot, all in a single take. This great Chaat fight of Baghpat had it all. (YouTube Link) 

6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Monkeys avenging one infant’s death by killing off 250 puppies. They have even gone started attacking humans who attempted to protect the dogs. (Link)

7. Cred Ads

They are funny, but what exactly is the product? To be honest, seem to be celeb funny videos pretending to be a product ad. Rahul Dravid & Neeraj Chopra’s were the best ones. 

8. Reddit vs Wall Street

When reddit forum decided to take on Wall Street. And from nowhere the Game Stop’s share price zoomed up and stayed up destroying a couple of hedge funds. Lets not underestinate the power of the collective mob! 

9. Zoom Mishaps

Work From Home, online classes and virtual meeting are continuing. So are the additions to the zoom mishaps (or MS teams & Google Meet, platform doesn’t matter). It has become a video category in itself. Special mention – where a lawyer turned up with a cat filter on. He reiterates, “I am not a cat”.

10. The Perfect Work Background Noise 

A recording of a meeting of the Finance & Corporate Committee of Waipa District Council, New Zealand suddenly gained popularity as people started using it as background noise to show that they themselves are in a meeting and to not get disturbed (YouTube Link)

That was the Year 2021. Lets hope that we stop living in these “unprecedented” times soon and get back to the “old normal” in 2022. 

Wishing all readers, a Very Happy, Healthy and Safe 2022!

2021 - TYIL

This Year I Learnt (#TYIL) 

Another year draws to a close. And as is becoming a habit, made a list of some interesting (at least to me) learnings from this year. Although given the year that 2021 was, avoiding references to covid related learnings (and there were lots of them) in my list. 

1. Percussive Maintenance – a malfunctioning machine can be fixed by smacking it a few times. Remember all the radios and TV remotes. (Wiktionary) This definitely works! 
2. Challenger Deep in Mariana Trench is named after a ship the HMS Challenger which explored the world. (BBC) This was literally uncharted territory 
3. Zeigarnik Effect - Completion of a task can lead to it being forgotten. While you are more likely to remember things which are incomplete or where you have been interrupted.  (Psychologist World). Certainly true in Candy Crush where you don't recall any of the levels you breezed through in the first attempt.
4. Harrowing – literally means breaking up big clumps of soil into smaller ones. (Wikipedia) No better word to describe the year that is going by.
5. Pasqua Rosee – founded the first coffee shop in London – the pioneer of Starbucks and other Baristas! (BBC).
6. Smell-o-Vision – a system where odour would also be provided along with the action on screen! Unfortunately (or fortunately), never really took off. (Wikipedia)
7. First known transaction in bitcoins was in 2010 – 10,000 bitcoins for 2 Papa Johns pizza! (in Jan 2021 this would have been worth $300 Million) (Guardian) There is no competition now for the costliest food item ever!
8. First online order (bread, margarine & eggs) was made through a “TV” (BBC)
9. Pareidolia – a tendency to find patterns and images in random places (YouTube) (Merriam Webster)
10. Svetlana & Misha Zilberman – mother-son duo who have been Israel’s mixed doubles badminton champions (Scroll)
11. Hibakusha – people who survived the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings (Wikipedia)
12. K A Auty Cup – the oldest international sporting Trophy – for cricket series between Canada & USA. Although given the many change in formats and big gaps, it has not been a regular feature (Wikipedia)
13. Seiryu-Miharashi – railway station in Japan with no other access except by train. Only for people to have a good view. (Link)
14. Richard Norris Williams – survived the Titanic sinking and later that year won US Open. (Link)
15. The US Air Force accidentally dropped an atomic bomb within its territory. Fortunately no human casualties! (How Stuff Works)
16. Mandela effect – a case of collective hallucination where a large group of people remember things differently from how it actually happened! (Healthline)
17. Pakistan’s high commissioner to India, Mohammad Ismail, wished to remain an Indian citizen (to protect his properties in UP) while being accredited to New Delhi as an envoy! 
18. Cryptomnesia - term for when a forgotten memory is repackaged as your own idea. You fail to remember who told you something, or where you read it, so you think it’s your own. (BBC). This is a different level of plagiarism!
19. Peltzman Effect – People are more likely to engage in risky behaviour when security measures have been mandated. Safety perception increases risk appetite (Link). became a popular term during the covid second wave. Couldn't avoid the reference
20. Taco Bell “borrowed” the idea of tacos from a Mexican restaurant “Mitla Café”. Amazingly both are still functioning – one as a fast food chain, other still in its standalone avatar (BBC)
21. Pedestrianism – who moves the most over 6 days! The sport has evolved into endurance racing, iron man triathalons and 24 hours of Le Mans (BBC)
22. Israel’s national anthem has been ripped off in Hindi film music. Well, at least it was a patriotic song! Thanks to the Olympics! (Hindustan Times)
23. Wright’s Law – states that for every cumulative doubling of units produced, costs will fall by a constant percentage. (ARK Invest)
24. Zeolites were used for water filtration by the Mayan civilization (BBC)
25. Slacktivism defined as the self-deluded idea that by liking, sharing, or retweeting something you are helping out. Although there are recent studies which say that that is not necessarily the case. (Urban Dictionary) (BBC)
26. The Great Hedge of India – built by British as a barrier along the customs line for taxing salt. Quite a costly affair to patrol and also a system of oppression of the natives (BBC)
27. Nipper – the dog on HMV’s label, listening to the voice of his late master Mark Barraud. (Firstpost)
28. Dactylonomy - counting on hands – the very basics of counting! (BBC) 
29. Phoebus Cartel – major lightbulb manufacturers including GE, Phillips, Osram decided to fix lightbulbs life at 1,000 hours instead of 2,500 hours. Longer life bulbs were not commercially viable! Started the planned obsolescence (Spectrum)
30. Pascal’s Triangle – every number is the sum of the two numbers directly above (Mathigon)

Well, 2021 was certainly a harrowing year. But we can always keep learning! Let’s see what new variants (in learnings) that 2022 brings. 

P.S. Lists from 2019 & 2020. 

BookMarks #90: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary

Title: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary 

Compiled By: Yadavinder Singh Sandhu 

Genre: Diary 

Published: 2021 

BookMarks 

The book is a collection of notes from Bhagat Singh’s jail term from September, 1929 to just the day before his martyrdom in March, 1931. The jail diaries are a series of notes kept by Bhagat Singh from his readings. In modern times it would have been a blog or a podcast. The notes cover a variety of subjects including history, civic society, the many hypocrisies of the British rule, economics, law etc. There are quotes from various authors and extracts from poems kept for his records. The notes also present Bhagat Singh’s views on a variety of subjects like marriage, charity, slavery, inequality in distribution of wealth, conducting a revolution etc. 

We have been reading about Bhagat Singh since childhood. His image has been of an action figure, but he certainly was much more than that. Just look at the variety of subjects he covers in his notes and the clarity of the thoughts. Also, he was just 23. Certainly someone much more mature beyond their age. The biggest tragedy is that such a life got cut short so early. 

And inspired by his writings, here is me taking notes from his notes. These are the lines which stood out to me. 

• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 
• Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why; Their’s but to do and die 
• Don’t ask for rights. Take them. And don’t let anyone give them to you. 
• Great are great because we are on knees. 
• So long as the laws are made by the ruling class and the courts are presided over by members of the class; so long as lawyers are private practitioners who sell their skill to the highest bidder, and litigation is technical and costly, so long will the nominal equality before the law be a hollow mockery. 
• For reform, a threat of revolution is necessary 
• Neither the machine nor the machine owner may rule the human race. 
• In politics as in war, tactics means the art of conducting isolated operations; strategy means the art of victory, that is the actual seizure of power. 
• Teach him to live rather than to avoid death! Life is not breath, but action! Life consists less in length of days than in keen sense of living. 
• The end of Law is not to abolish or restrain but to preserve or enlarge freedom. 
• A revolution is justifiable when the government ceases to fulfil its part of contract — the protection of personal rights. 
• No one should be rich enough to buy another nor poor enough to be forced to sell himself. Great inequalities pave the way for tyranny. 
• The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of saying ‘that is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of Civil Society. 
• An insurrection is an equation with very indefinite magnitudes, the value of which may change every day. 
• Remember that plague and cholera may attack you tomorrow, and is it not better for you to die as heroes? - Can't beat this logic for motivating more people to join the revolution

What remarkable thoughts! 

Previously on BookMarks: Siddhartha  

Previously on Bhagat Singh on the blog: Learn N Blog #11 

BookMarks #89: Siddhartha

Title: Siddhartha

Author: Hermann Hesse

Genre: Historical Fiction, Self-discovery

Published: 1922 (German)

BookMarks

Siddhartha is the story of the journey of self-discovery of a man who is a contemporary of the Buddha. Siddhartha seeks knowledge and his search leads him to renouncing his home, meditating, then coming back to the world, and stepping away again. He also meets the Buddha but doesn't become a follower. In this journey his paths with those he left behind crosses again completing the circle of life. 

My favorite line from the book - "Knowledge can be conveyed but not wisdom". This line is the essence of the tale. Siddhartha finds his own way and learns through his own experiences and not just by becoming a follower. 

I had been under the impression that the book is the story of Gautam Buddha. Turns out its a parallel to the Buddha.

Previously on BookMarks: The Picture of Dorian Gray

BookMarks #88: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Author: Oscar Wilde 

Genre: Fiction 

Published: 1891 

BookMarks 

Going back to the Classics era – The Picture of Dorian Gray is a comment on the debauched lifestyle of the elite classes. A man commits all possible sins and nothing leaves a mark on him, while a portrait of his bears all the signs, getting progressively older and uglier with each sin. The central characters all live, not so ideal lifestyles and finally do end up paying for it, but not till quite some time has passed. Overall, quite a lesson in morals, although must not have been taken in good humor by the “classes” of the time. 

There are a few lines which stood out. 

• "All art is quite useless" – Yet look at the monetary value which people are willing to pay for “art” 
• "Experience is the name men have to their mistakes" – A nice euphemism 
• "To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable" – Also true for everyone who wishes to start going to the gym from tomorrow. 

Previously on BookMarks: A Bear, A Dog and A Kangaroo 

On Nationality

Emma Raducanu’s stupendous and scarcely believable run to becoming US Open Champion triggered off an interesting chain of thoughts. A citizen of UK, born in Canada to parents who are originally from Romania and China respectively. Obviously, every one of these countries immediately staked their claim on her success! Even us Indians, who are far removed from the action managed to find our own little claim – her biggest tournament win before this was the Pune ITF Challenger in 2019! 

With increased movement across borders, nationalities are becoming fluid. Take the case of the Labuschagne brothers – born in South Africa, Marnus is a leading Australian batter, while Frank leads the Japanese rugby side! Sporting world is replete with such examples. The globalization of cricket is currently running on the shoulders of the expatriate South Asian populace. Then the oil rich Middle Eastern countries are importing global talent to boost themselves in the medal tables! 

Then we have the case of India. Having punched below our potential weight over the last century in the global arena, we have found innovative ways of inflating our collective success. No better example here than this list of Indian Nobel Prize winners on Wikipedia. The list contains 12 names of whom only 5 are citizens of India! It also includes people who gave up Indian citizenship, Britishers born in India during the Raj and even the Dalai Lama. And just to round things off has a link to VS Naipaul’s wiki page at the bottom! Basically, providing a perfect analogy to the phrase, success has many fathers! 

But coming back to the question, who should claim an individual’s success? The country of birth, or of citizenship (and what of multiple passport holders), or of ethnicity (mixed inheritances?), or where the actual work was done? IMO seems an irrelevant question. Let the individual decide, what they identify with? Could be single or multiple. Meanwhile, let others bask in the reflected glory of others. And cases like Raducanu can be a bridge across cultures!

BookMarks #87: A Bear, A Dog and A Kangaroo

Title: A Bear, A Dog and A Kangaroo: Three Comedy Memoirs… with Teeth and Claws 

Author: Tony James Slater 

Genre: Travelogue, Memoirs 

Published: 2020 

BookMarks 

This is not one but a collection of three books: “That Bear Ate My Pants”, “Don’t need the Whole Dog” and “Kamikaze Kangaroos”. They narrate the adventures of the author Tony Slater, a person who will not be bound by a regular job but rather go around gathering experiences and making money as it comes through volunteering and temporary jobs. The adventures take him across Ecuador, USA, UK, Thailand, Myanmar, Australia and New Zealand and more. 

The first book is set in Ecuador where he has a volunteering gig at a animal shelter. The main sources of hilarity are Tony’s attempts at proving himself to be “a man” and his inability to speak the Spanish language, leading to often deadly situations for himself. 

The second book, while mainly about his adventures in Thailand, where he volunteers at a animals clinic and has a job as a diving trainer, also throws more light on his family. It starts in USA, where he is on a holiday with his mother and sister and friends. Then there is an attempt to flip a house in his country Wales, which is also a part of a reality show on real estate business. Throw in some paid volunteering for medical purposes (to earn money), a trip on a sailboat and even a stint in the Territorial Army. Life in Thailand comprises mostly about partying, getting drunk, and losing stuff and making regular trips to Burma for visa renewal. 

The third book are the adventures in the great Australian outback, where he along with his sister and a friend make journeys by van and hiking. In between, they also do temporary jobs to make a living. Finally they end up in New Zealand, where they are working on a ski resort. 

The books are long (1700+ pages combined), there is the regular comedy although some of it gets a tad boring. We barely see the touristy side of the places he stays, but its more of the actual stay which is described. And across the pages Tony, his quirks and the friendships he forges keep growing on the reader, as we vicariously live the adventures though him. Not exactly a life most people would be interested in, but it does grow on you. 

Previously on BookMarks: Three Men in a Boat

LearnNBlog #19: The Hydrogen Rainbow

Climate change concerns have propelled the shift from fossil fuels to alternates in the quest for cleaner energy resources. 

In high school chemistry, Hydrogen was described as a colourless gas. Yet today when we hear talk of a green economy, it is the various shades of Hydrogen hogging the headlines. But what exactly do the different colours signify? The colours indicate the source of Hydrogen and how it has been produced. The primary ones are as follows (and it is an ever expanding spectrum) 

• White: Naturally occurring but of limited commercial value. 
• Brown/Black: Produced by transforming coal into gas. 
• Grey: Produced from Natural Gas through Steam Forming. The most common process currently 
• Blue: Same as grey. However the emissions are captured and stored. 
• Turquoise: Extracted from Natural gas but leaving Solid Carbon as a by-product 
• Pink: Electrolysis using Nuclear Energy 
• Green: Electrolysis using Renewable energy 

For a really clean economy, green hydrogen is "The One" as the others still release carbon emissions! Thus not fully suitable for a Net Zero emissions ambitions being articulated. 

How will this all pan out? Well, the answer is not easy but at least the world is trying before its too late!

Links:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/clean-energy-green-hydrogen/
• https://energy-cities.eu/50-shades-of-grey-and-blue-and-green-hydrogen/

Previously on Learn N Blog: Ubuntu